I am sitting in the bedroom typing this with a nice glass of red wine. Jasmine is snoozing in her cot. We have bathed her (as she was a bit crusty from all the vomiting), changed her PD dressing, and put her on dialysis. And this feels like the first time I have sat down all day (which just isn’t true). It is lovely sitting in here. Jasmine is peaceful and the room feels really nice. Neil is in the other room on a conference call to America for work and before it started I got the chance to speak to his very nice colleague Leonardo (Hello Leo!!).
So, we have had Jasmine at home for two weeks. It has been fantastic. Last night, whilst congratulating ourselves about it and doing her observations, we discovered that Jasmine had a temperature (37.9). Aargh! If Jasmine ever runs a temperature and is vomiting during the day we must take a sample of her peritoneal fluid to the hospital to test for peritonitis. Because we are using the peritoneum as a big kidney, she is at risk of infection. So, taking a sample of fluid enables the hospital to test it for her white cell count and see what is going on in there. If the cell count is raised she would have to go into hospital and spend 48 hours on continual dialysis. And in a worst case scenario of serious infection, her catheter would have to be removed and we wouldn’t be able to use the peritoneum at all.
After I had lived through the above scenario and lots of others in my mind, her temperature came down – it must have been due to the hot day. It was boiling in the flat and Jasmine and I had had a lazy time lying on the bed listening to Radio 4′ Listen Again on the internet and discussing at length whether we thought Cherie Blair’s autobiography serialised on the radio was any good (we didn’t think we would be rushing out to buy it). So, Jasmine must have just been a bit hot when we took her temperature. Neil and I didn’t believe it was that simple and spent the evening (in between watching the footie and John Terry crying, I ask you) taking her temperature and bickering amongst ourselves about whether we were doing it correctly. Six temperature takes later we were satisified that she had just been hot and we didn’t need to rush down to GOSH.
Instead Jasmine and I went to GOSH today as I forgot to pick up her prescription medicines on Monday – too busy chatting. So we sat about in the pharmacy and received lots of compliments. I just can’t ever hear too many times how gorgeous my girl is. Then we toddled up to the ward to say hello to everyone. It was lovely to see the nurses and have a chat (I miss my chats) and they said that she had grown and was looking well.
We got back this evening and I tidied up, as this morning I did some reviewing for the EPSRC and was very pleased to have done something with my brain and to feel part of something. The downside of reviewing was that I left the flat in a tip as I wanted to make sure I got to the pharmacy in time so when I got back I had to fiddle about for ages straightening things up and hang up yet more washing instead of flopping on the couch. And then Neil came back early so we could do her PD dressing before his conference call.
Tomorrow we will get all our deliveries and the community nurse is coming round so it will be good to get an early night as the deliveries could start at 8am and no doubt Jasmine will be awake in the night. Last night she woke us up at 1am crying really loudly just because she had had a poo. What a drama queen. When she finished she went straight off back to sleep leaving Neil and I wide awake, dirty nappy in hand.
Hey, the drama queen has a little friend in Metuchen keeping mom and dad a good part of the night, and she’s 18 months now ! So, get used to it 😉
Claudia told me I am now famous in the internet, and came right here to see the birth of a cyber-star, lol. ‘was fun chatting with you! I had a red Bordeaux yesterday night, too, what a small world!
Cheers!
Leo